Combat Infantryman's Badge or CIB |
"One evening on Long Island, James Jones climbed willingly up to the attic to locate a box of war stuff his son had asked to see. As Willie Morris reports Jones saying while he sorted through the ribbons and their attachments,
2nd Lt. Paul Fussell, 45th ID Paris, 1945 |
'This one here, it's the only one we wore when we shipped home.' He pointed to the replica of a rifle on a field of blue with a silver wreath around it. 'It's the Combat Infantryman's Badge.'
'Why,' asks the boy, 'why is that the only one you ever wore?'
'Oh shit, I don't know. It was a point of pride, you see-- better than all the rest. It spoke for itself. It really meant something. It was an unbroken rule. If you wore any of the others, the men would've laughed you out of town, or maybe whipped your ass.'
R. Kotlowitz's memoir cover, 26th ID |
--Paul Fussell, "The Boys' Crusade", pgs. 102-103
PURCHASE Paul Fussell's "The Boys' Crusade" HERE
*In 1947 the US government authorized that any infantryman earning the CIB in WWII was automatically eligible for a bronze star.*
*In 1947 the US government authorized that any infantryman earning the CIB in WWII was automatically eligible for a bronze star.*
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